Shadowing Practice: When Cartoons Warned Us About Love. - Learn English Speaking with Video

You've got this.

Yes, dude.

Yes.

Dude.

Mordecai.

I know it must hurt, man, but you've been listening to that song on repeat for like five days now.

You were doing so well.

Mordecai.

Is he still crying about the coffee girl?

If I have to listen to this song one more time.

Mordecai.

This is your boss.

Open up.

I'm taking a mental health day.

You don't have the right to be sad.

You never even had the guts to tell Margaret how you feel.

Listen, if you leave things the way they are now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

Telling her might not change anything, but at least you'll have closure.

You should just tell Margaret how you feel.

You're right.

Say I wasn't so normal.

Well, let's say I was bald and had the complexion of a popular primary color, as a random, non -specific example,

would you still enjoy my company? Of course.

We don't judge a book by its cover or a person from the outside.

Oh, that's a relief to hear.

I can explain.

What about everything you've just said about judging a book by its cover?

Why are you so evil, tricking me?

What could you possibly hope to gain?

Wait a minute.

Oh, I don't believe this.

Do you really think that I would ever be with you?

No. I guess I'm just thinking about Flame Princess.

I told her a joke the other day, and she didn't even laugh or anything.

Guess it's over between us.

That's it?

A joke?

Man, having a girlfriend is hard.

No, being crazy is hard.

You're getting all hung up.

All hung up on imaginary problems.

You gotta focus on what's real, man.

You see this cup?

This is literally my favorite cup.

Now it's gone forever, so it's not real, and I don't care about it anymore.

Go for Morty!

Hi, Morty.

It's Jessica.

Look, can we just talk for a minute?

Is that how long it takes for Rick to trace my location?

Come back, Morty.

I miss you.

You miss the old me.

You miss someone that loved you so much you never had to love him back.

How do you know I don't want to love you?

Because I'm not sick.

Look at that.

Another tortured soul.

Another light of pain.

Hey, Raven.

Chuck it out.

What's the matter with you?

Well...

My girlfriend broke up with me.

Did she step on your heart with stiletto shoes?

Yeah, sure does, Bird.

That's cool.

I guess you can join up with us if you want.

Yeah, we're gonna go to the graveyard and write poems about death and how pointless life is.

No thanks.

I love life.

Huh?

But you just got dumped.

Well, yeah, and I'm sad.

But at the same time, I'm really happy that something can make me feel that sad.

It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know?

It makes me feel human.

The only way I can feel this sad now is if I felt something really good before.

So I have to take the bad with the good.

So I guess what I'm feeling is like a beautiful sadness.

I guess that sounds stupid.

You need to let her go.

I know.

It's gonna hurt a little bit when you do. Who am I kidding?

It's gonna hurt a lot.

But you're gonna be okay.

I can't do this anymore!

What?

Now you like me?

Finn, what are you talking about?

What am I talking about?

Phoebe, I was...

I was in love with you, okay?

And you didn't love me back.

Now I'm ready to move on, and it's like...

You're gonna build me up all over again.

Well, I'm done.

I'm done.

100

Part of me is still waiting for Margaret to come back.

101

What?

102

Still? she's not coming back dude she's gone look I know all right I know it's just I

103

mean I don't still have feelings for her

104

but I do in a way it's like this thing that's inside of me

105

and it's always just sort of sitting there waiting around sometimes I'll see something

106

or I'll smell something

107

and it makes me think of even though i don't want

108

to i let her go yes yes splen you what how could you do

109

that i had to yes but why because i love her So what?

110

He's scared of love?

111

Everyone's scared of love, dipshit.

112

You learned that in your 20s.

113

It takes a very rare, very powerful being to be terrified of happiness.

114

Dumb!

115

You're dumb.

116

That's why you're not scared to be happy.

117

The smarter you are, the more you know.

118

Happiness is a trap.

119

It can't last forever.

120

Let's say you meet the love of your life.

121

Well, it's still in a hand.

122

It's inevitable.

123

Whether by the slow pull of a disease or the shock or loose footing on a hiking trail, Whether it be the corrosion of two personalities that reshape each other until they're incompatible,

124

or maybe the old stranger in a bar who says the things that need to be said to that person that night.

125

The point is, happiness always ends.

126

Best case scenario, think about this.

127

Best case is that you die at the same time.

128

Well, sounds like you're sad.

129

Listen, Ben, girls is like horses.

130

When you fall down, it's important that you get right back on again, on a different horse.

131

And there's a lot of fish in the sea.

132

A lot of fish.

133

Penny saved, it's a penny earned.

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70 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “When Cartoons Warned Us About Love”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sad, guess, mordecai. This video has 133 sentences and 938 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:57. The speaker talks at a natural 158 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 26 of its 133 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
happiness noun	/ˈhæpinɪs/	The emotion of being happy; joy; elation.
scare verb	/skɛɚ/	To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
penny noun	/ˈpɛni/	In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
earn verb	/ɝn/	To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
trick noun	/ˈtɹɪk/	Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
shock noun	/ʃɔk/	A sudden, heavy impact.
trail noun	/tɹeɪl/	The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the…
regret verb	/ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/	To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
trap noun	/tɹæp/	A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.
poem noun	/ˈpoʊ.əm/	A literary piece written in verse.
shoe noun	/ˈʃu/	A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of…
scenario noun	/sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/	An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events.
trace noun	/tɹeɪs/	An act of tracing.
chuck verb	/t͡ʃʌk/	To playfully give a light touch, stroke, tap, etc., to someone, especially under the chin.
torture noun	/ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/	The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come back verb		To return to a place.
fall down verb	/fɔl ˈdaʊn/	To fall to the ground. To collapse.
open up verb		To open.
wait around verb		To spend an especially lengthy period of time inactively, while expecting the arrival of someone or while anticipating some other event, often impatiently and…

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Why are you so evil, tricking me?
What could you possibly hope to gain?
Look, can we just talk for a minute?
How do you know I don't want to love you?
What's the matter with you?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 43 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shock /ʃɔk/, shoe /ˈʃu/, closure /ˈkloʊ.ʒɚ/, complexion /kəmˈplɛkʃən/, corrosion /kəˈɹoʊʒən/
Long words — get the stress right: inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/, incompatible /ˌɪŋkəmˈpætɪbəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like happiness, scare, penny.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: When Cartoons Warned Us About Love. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?